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July 18 Email Update
Flood Update and Community Meeting Agenda Hi everyone, It’s Emma and Greg here. A lot has happened since our last update, including the fact that a lot more of our community is apparently considered to be in the flood fringe due to changes with the designation of ‘overland flow’ (including both Greg and Emma’s places). Here’s a link to the information we’ve been given. We’ll do our best to find more details. Also, the province released a decision flowchart for homeowners in floodways and flood fringe areas. Here’s a link to the government site http://alberta.ca/Preventing-Flood-Damage.cfm and a decision flowchart http://alberta.ca/albertacode/images/Floodway-Fact-Sheet.pdf July 23 Community Meeting ' As for our meeting on July 23rd, the Premier’s office has been in touch with us and they will be sending Government experts from the Southern Alberta Flood Recovery Task Force. We’ve also been in touch with the city and hope to have municipal representation there as well. Unfortunately there’s a city council meeting that night so we may not see our elected representatives but they are aware of the meeting and have been very supportive. We’re pleased the government has taken notice of our concerns. We look forward to a good discussion about how best to protect our community. Also, please note that due to interest in this meeting we have moved it to the Ballroom at the Glencoe Club. '''Meeting Goals ' - Come together as a community to share information and show a united front. Demonstrate our commitment to maintaining the integrity of our communities. - Learn more about the options for upstream flood mitigation from experts who will be in attendance and have government ensure upstream flood mitigation is a core strategy. - Listen to specifics about what is known now and details on what big-picture solutions the government is exploring. It’s still early days and we recognize the complexity of what we’re dealing with. We expect to be included in the decision making process. - Confirmation government will mitigate future flood risk and not just their own financial exposure. - Create one or more committees to manage and advocate for our communities’ interests going forward. 'Questions ' Based on the feedback we’ve received from our neighbours we have compiled a list of questions we have submitted to the provincial and municipal governments. We know they won’t be able to provide definitive answers to all of our questions but we’re hopeful we can learn as much as we can. There will also be an opportunity to ask additional questions at the meeting but please recognize that this will likely be a large gathering so there won’t be time for everyone to ask a question. We will form a committee that will work with the various levels of government to advocate for our interests and get answers to these questions. NOTE: There are a number of questions about what the province or city knew and or did or didn’t do prior to this flood. While these are important questions we want to keep this meeting focused on solutions and our concerns moving forward. 1. Will the province emphasize upstream mitigation as the primary method of addressing future flooding? 2. What does “flood proofing” mean for individual homeowners? Will upstream mitigation be considered as a holistic solution to future flood prevention vs. expecting homeowners to do one-off individual mitigations? 3. If major infrastructure is required would the government consider a cost sharing scheme with residents who would benefit from it? 4. Is the province considering an insurance program? 5. Floodway / flood fringe / overland flow map: Is the map set or are changes coming? 6. Can upstream mitigation remove notation on land titles? 7. Are city zoning, height restriction, setback or other changes being considered to expedite rebuild and / or to allow people to move their houses out of the floodway or flood fringe areas? 8. What is the plan for foot bridges and other City infrastructure. 9. What type of City or local infrastructure could mitigate the flood? 10. Has the city considered a property tax moratorium for those whose homes are still uninhabitable? '''DRAFT Meeting Agenda **NOTE: Things are moving very quickly and we can only commit to a draft agenda at this point. We hope to have a more detailed and concrete agenda by Monday of next week. 1. Introductions 2. Learn more about upstream flood mitigation options 3. Presentation from government officials 4. Questions